Explore The Role Of Alfieri And Discuss His Dramatic Significance In The Play
The play is set in Red Hook, in Brooklyn, in New York. ... The play is mainly based on the difference between old and new, between America and Italy. This basis is relied on and is brought up, at many points in the play. Alfieri’s role in the play is neutral. He is a narrator, and occasionally an actor in the play. ... The play starts with Alfieri talking in a soliloquy. This shows just how Miller wants the audience to think that Alfieri is a very important in the play. It comes across that Alfieri is the person the audience will rely on for information at different points in the play. Overall, miller starts the play with Alfieri because he is an honest and well-spoken man. This affects the audience by letting them know that they can trust Alfieri as a neutral character. Alfieri starts the soliloquy talking about Red Hook, a very poor area which ‘…swallows immigrants…’ By talking about this, he is setting the scene for the audience, so that they feel more involved in the play. He then moves on to talk on about the play, and its characters. In the soliloquy, Alfieri talks about how Eddie’s situation reminds him of home, ‘…washes in with the green scent of the sea, the dust in this air is blown away…’ As Alfieri is an immigrant from Italy, he knows Eddie’s point and talks about how in Italy, people don’t trust the law, and take justice into their own hands. Which is exactly the point Eddie is trying to make during the play, ‘…in Sicily, from where their fathers came, the law has not been a friendly idea since the Greeks were beaten…’ Towards the end of the soliloquy, Alfieri uses juxtaposition. ... He is suggesting that Eddie will face fate later in the play, ‘…and watched it run its blood course…’ This is letting the audience know that someone in the play will die, and by using juxtaposition, Alfieri is hinting that the person who will die, will be Eddie.